We should support the Arab peace offer

Forty years ago, Israel launched the six-day war that changed the face of the Middle East and initiated one of the longest occupations in modern history (Six-day war, June 5). Since then, the Israeli military has expanded and tightened its hold over Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, settling Israeli citizens illegally on occupied Palestinian and Syrian land.

Today the Gaza Strip is the world's largest prison, with 1.4 million Palestinians trapped inside, deprived of the freedom to travel or trade, and with little hope for the future. The West Bank is covered in hundreds of illegal settlements containing almost 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers, and carved up by settler roads, 549 roadblocks and a wall that serves not just to protect Israelis, but to imprison the Palestinians within it and to annex around 10% of the West Bank.

The Israeli army has used overwhelming force to expand this occupation, leading to the loss of thousands of Palestinian lives. As with nearly every occupation in history, it has led to increasingly violent resistance, which in turn has led to the loss of wholly innocent Israeli lives. Palestinians are further away than ever from being free and their chances of having a viable state is being swallowed up before their eyes, leaving around 12% of what was once their country.

The international community formally opposes this colonisation and land theft. But instead of insisting Israel ends its occupation, its inaction has condoned its expansion. Ending this occupation after 40 years is a matter of urgency not just for Palestinians, but for Israelis as well. The Golan Heights could and should be returned to Syria in exchange for peace.

The British government and the EU should throw their full weight behind the Arab peace plan that offers peace and normalisation in return for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab land before 1967. There is now a united and moderate Arab peace proposal that offers the best prospect for peace in a rapidly disintegrating environment. It both deserves and requires support.Crispin Blunt MP Richard Burden MPNeil Gerrard MPDr Brian Iddon MPLord Hylton,Mark Lazarowicz MPKerry McCarthy MPLord Andrew PhillipsChristine Russell MPAndrew Slaughter MPDr Phyllis Starkey MPDerek Wyatt MP

You omit many facts in Israel's legitimate defence. Nasser did more than "put on a show of force"; his bellicose claims to "wipe Israel off the map" had been broadcast for years and it was a massive army he sent to the Sinai. The withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from the border was another sign that nothing would stand in the way of an Egyptian attack. As your maps illustrate clearly, had the Arabs accepted the UN resolution in 1948, they would have had far greater territory today. Israel is being blamed for winning wars that if they had lost would have led to the country's annihilation.Rabbi Dr Andrew GoldsteinNorthwood, Middlesex